Moai Mystery Solved?
How did ancient people move these giant statues to their present location? New research may have solved this mystery.
© NurPhoto/Getty Images
The Rapa Nui people of Easter Island carved these giant moai statues.
The giant statues of Easter Island have long been the subject of a mystery. Made of volcanic rock, the ancient statues, called moai, are massive. Yet many of them have somehow been placed in rows, where their huge faces watch over the island. Experts have long wondered how the heavy statues were moved to their present locations. A new study may have solved the mystery.
What Are the Moai Statues?
The moai statues are giant figures that have faces and torsos but no legs. There are about 900 moai statues on Easter Island, which is located in the Pacific Ocean about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) west of Chile.
The moai were made between the years 700 and 1680 by the Rapa Nui people, who are indigenous (native) to the island. The statues were carved near the source of the rock and then moved to locations all over Easter Island. But since there was no machinery at the time, no one—not scientists nor the modern-day Rapa Nui people—is sure how the moai were moved.
Moving the Moai
Recently, two anthropologists conducted a study to see if they could solve the mystery. (Anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures.) Carl Lipo of Binghamton University and Terry Hunt of the University of Arizona came up with a theory and then put it to the test.
The team began by creating 3D models of the moai to study their design. They noted the shape of each statue’s base and the fact that each one leaned forward. This would have made it easier to move the statue by rocking its base back and forth in a gentle, zigzagging motion, almost as if the statue were walking on its base.
Courtesy of © Carl Lipo, Binghamton University and Terry Hunt, University of Arizona.
A research team built this moai statue and then used rope to determine whether they could move the statue without modern equipment.
Then it was time to test the theory. The scientists built a 4.35-ton moai that had all the design features of the original statues. A group of 18 people tied rope around the moai replica (copy) and used the zigzagging “walking” motion to move it 328 feet (100 meters) in 40 minutes.
Based on this experiment, Lipo says he believes the Rapa Nui people used this “walking” method to move each moai to its location. This would have allowed the Rapa Nui people to accomplish an enormous task with no machinery.
“It shows that the Rapa Nui people were incredibly smart. They figured this out,” Lipo said in an article on the Binghamton University website. “So it really gives honor to those people, saying, look at what they were able to achieve, and we have a lot to learn from them in these principles.”
